I think I've cracked the AAE -9173 error riddle!

[garderobamusic]

Hello everyone!

First off my equipment info:

MacBook Pro Early 2013, 2,7 GHz, 16GB RAM, OS X 10.10.5, HD OMNI, Pro Tools HD NATIVE 12.5, TB Apple Display 27"
Plugins and VI: UAD Satellite Octo TB, Waves, Slate, Soundtoys 5, Sonnox, Softube, Avid, Native Instruments Komplete 10, Air Music, Spectrasonics, CFX Piano, McDSP, Plugin Alliance, FabFilter, Izotope and some single others

About 3, 4 months ago PT started acting up beyond what I could call occasional discomfort. It would freeze up, choke or simply unexpectedly quit.

I was hoping PT 12.1 or .2 or .3 or .5 would make it stable... but to na avail...

So I started serious investigation. My Pro Tools guru said it was probably some plugins not getting along with each other. Tedious work of tracking that down.

So I tried just UAD plugins in a session, just Waves, just Sonnox etc. I arrived at the conclusion that it was the UAD that was causing it. Though maybe UAD hardware started playing up. But even when I disabled UAD it would happen.

Than I noticed that the AAE -9173 error and CPU spike (2 or 3 cores) would happen in a particular section of the song. I looked closer and there was a simple mute automation there. I cleared it and it wouldn't give me the error again!!!

I thought I was onto something.

Today I opened a session I'd put aside 4 months ago. 20 tracks, 6 VI tracks - Boom, Kontakt, Battery 4, Arturia and maybe Vacuum Pro. Not too many plugins on audio tracks, but all different kinds I use in production. I wanted to work on a new section so I committed the VI tracks and BANG! AAE -9173 again.
So I thought maybe, just maybe it is the commit or freeze functions that are somehow buggy.
I tried bouncing the tracks, same problem. Even created new audio tracks and recorded VIs this way, no joy either.

Then I remember the mute automation thing and I committed VI tracks but immediately after cleared all automation. SOLVED!!!

I jumped from one section of song to another like you normally do when mixing, even hitting space bar twice very quickly than more jumping then more hitting the space bar .... Pro Tools all the time Pro Fessionally playing back the music.

Then I thought what if I want to record new automation. Will it get messy again?

So I recorded crazy amount of automation, including plugin automation, using S3. On playback, no problem.

My conclusion is: commit or freeze + existing automation= problem, or commit or freeze + existing automation + some plugings= problem, or record + hide/make inactive + automation= problem. One of those;-) For those of us using VIs it might be where the problem is...

The biggest upshot of it all for me is that it helped me figure out how to separate my production phase from mixing. Work on music, VIs, even automation. Than commit, kill automation. Open new session and feel like you've received tracks to mix. Voila.

I still think this is a joke that we have to go through this on PT 12.5, with all the money we've spent on a "professional" solution. But I've been using PT for 16 years, it is the extension of my ears and eyes and hands. And I AM NOT learning another DAW. I have SO many other things to learn about music, creativity and all that...

Anyone can relate to my situation, replicate the problem or solution?

Best to all

Piotr

[lonehunterband]

Hi, Piotr.

I don't use freeze or commit and this AAE 9173 is here, every time.
At night I'll try to clear all automations and see what happens.

[TAMBOR]

Originally Posted by lonehunterband

Hi, Piotr.

I don't use freeze or commit and this AAE 9173 is here, every time.
At night I'll try to clear all automations and see what happens.

I'm wondering if this is related to dynamic plugin processing loading and unloading plugins in the background, and maybe maxing out a thread in Pro Tools?

I've also noticed a lot of CPU activity on the PT system meter after stopping playback. Anyone else?

[Blackers]

Hey Piotr,i was after this bug of automation causing cpu spikes,yeah i've been deleting automation data from old mixes and this is an old problem.The plugin problem seems a lot more dificult to deal.Last night i was preproducing a track with 2 waves ssl and 2 guitarrigs instances,and what a bloody night.9173 error every 3 minutes with less than 10% of cpu,no automation or internet.It's gonna be a loooonnng year.

[nigelpry]

That's the problem, I sometimes get it playing back audio only sessions with no autmation yet written and tracks in read mode.

Next time it happens on a track like that, I'll try setting automation to off instead of read, see if that makes a difference.

[Rajsmoove]

I noticed I would get a higher occurrence of 9173s when mousing around over an open Waves SSL Channel plug in window while playing back. Don't know if it was a GUI thing or what.

[Blackers]

Yes,at least for me,Waves is a lot buggy with freezes crasshes and some times mousing the parameters ocurs to 9173s.

[garderobamusic]

UPDATE

I'm working on a session in which I committed tracks and cleared all automation. (But it is still the same session - didn't create a new session and import new committed tracks)

Started mixing it, used some plugins and then made a simple mute automation... BANG AGAIN! AAE -9173

Even on reopening session PT chokes and throws out the error.

Went in removed this ONE automation and we're good again...

Man... I'll be trimming clips and muting tracks with volume next;-(

Best

Piotr

[TAMBOR]

Originally Posted by garderobamusic

UPDATE

I'm working on a session in which I committed tracks and cleared all automation. (But it is still the same session - didn't create a new session and import new committed tracks)

Started mixing it, used some plugins and then made a simple mute automation... BANG AGAIN! AAE -9173

Even on reopening session PT chokes and throws out the error.

Went in removed this ONE automation and we're good again...

Man... I'll be trimming clips and muting tracks with volume next;-(

Best

Piotr

Does anyone know if performing a mute triggers Dynamic Plugin Processing - i.e. no audio during a mute?

[dankin]

I never use mute automation, I still get occasional 9173 errors, but they are happening less with 12.5 here.